This invention relates to car racks for carrying items such as sailboards, bicycles, surfboards, skis, or the like, particularly for cars with convertible tops.
Many persons who own convertible top vehicles also enjoy wind surfing, biking, surfing, water skiing, snow skiing, and other similar sports that require the transportation of equipment, typically on a "roof rack." There are numerous carriers of this nature which are fastened to hard top roofs and hard top rain gutters by various combinations of clamps, clips, straps, pads, magnetic devices, and suction cups. None of these devices, however, can be secured to convertible tops. Moreover, none of these devices can be used if the vehicle does not have a top or if its convertible top is "down," as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,867,362 to Finnegan; U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,178 to Nabarrete; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,007,862 to Heftmann.
A few attempts to address similar problems have been made. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,752 to Welter discloses a clamp device for carrying a canoe on a convertible top jeep. This device requires a rear roll bar capable of weight bearing. Very few, if any, convertible top vehicles have such a roll bar other than jeeps. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,527,827 to Maniscalco, discloses an invention for supporting a surf board above the bed of a pickup truck. This device could not be used with convertible top vehicles as it depends on the cab roof and the vertical bed sides for attachment and weight bearing.
Additionally, there is an invention designed for carrying sailboards along the side of a vehicle. It is comprised of one tube bent to contain two large S-hooks, spaced a few feet apart. The top hook of each S is placed over the top of a car door while the bottom hook of each S cradles the board. This device can never be used with the door window closed and, in some cases, it cannot be used with the convertible top "up"; thus, the possibility of inclement weather makes this device impractical in many regions. Moreover, the car door supporting this device cannot be opened when a sailboard is being carried. Finally, this device is not capable of carrying anything except one sailboard: it cannot carry bicycles or two sailboards.